JapanReef - 450 gallon In-Wall system
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I cut off the bottom of a beer crate. Very sturdy and will let the detritus through nicely. Just need to do one more. Meanwhile I'm going to transfer the rock to the big tank tomorrow. I really don't have a lot of rock and I'm really worried about causing a cycle and killing my fish. I think the Chromis and Gobies will go across first and I'll wait to transfer the tang, coral beauty and clowns. Maybe wait a week and monitor water parameters before those last 4 go across.
Adambalding
New member
Be carefull when you move out all the rock cuz the fish will probably start to fight!
Jim_S
Timo Boll
You shouldn't be causing a new cycle if you are tranfering your LR from your old system. All the bacteria should be just fine.
I switched tanks a while back and had to move over 100+#'s of LR. There was no problem with regards to creating a new cylce. All my fish survied. If you are concerned, get some biosphere bacteria (if you can) and all will be fine.
Jim
I switched tanks a while back and had to move over 100+#'s of LR. There was no problem with regards to creating a new cylce. All my fish survied. If you are concerned, get some biosphere bacteria (if you can) and all will be fine.
Jim
awcurl
Premium Member
I asked a bread delivery guy for some, he picked out a few of the older ones and gave them to me. Never hurts to ask before doing the Midnight run.
These things are incredibly strong. I've got over 200 pounds of rock sitting on them and there is no collapsed supports.
:bum:
My family headed back to the UK on Saturday so I can move forward with things now. My LR is coming from Okinawa and I phoned them on Friday and apparently the weather down there is bad so they haven't been able to dive for rock. Hopefully they can this week.
I changed the rack tops to the beer crate bottom - perfect size and very sturdy.
I moved all the rock bar a few pieces and moved the Chromis and 2 gobies. I haven't seen a rise in Ammonia levels but I have a nasty diatom bloom now. The rock I put in was still shedding sand and detritus when I put it in so I have a fine layer of that (plus the sand I used to test the racks) and the diatom is not typical. When the halides come on the fine sand layer is covered in bubbles that rise to the surface. The rock is also covered in bubbles. So now my tank is just a load of bubbles - around 50-75 at any time that are rising from the bottom so it looks like cr@p.
Is this just to be expected or is there anything I should be doing?
On another note my Deltec 902 is dialling in nicely. Not alot to skim in the system but I'm still getting a few inches of nasty skimmate every 3 days or so.
Here's a shot when I had the beer crate top on the left rack and before I moved the rock (which incidentally is enough to cover 10% of one rack, lol).
If anyone has any insight aacbout the diatom bubble issue, I'd be happy to hear it.
I changed the rack tops to the beer crate bottom - perfect size and very sturdy.
I moved all the rock bar a few pieces and moved the Chromis and 2 gobies. I haven't seen a rise in Ammonia levels but I have a nasty diatom bloom now. The rock I put in was still shedding sand and detritus when I put it in so I have a fine layer of that (plus the sand I used to test the racks) and the diatom is not typical. When the halides come on the fine sand layer is covered in bubbles that rise to the surface. The rock is also covered in bubbles. So now my tank is just a load of bubbles - around 50-75 at any time that are rising from the bottom so it looks like cr@p.
Is this just to be expected or is there anything I should be doing?
On another note my Deltec 902 is dialling in nicely. Not alot to skim in the system but I'm still getting a few inches of nasty skimmate every 3 days or so.
Here's a shot when I had the beer crate top on the left rack and before I moved the rock (which incidentally is enough to cover 10% of one rack, lol).
If anyone has any insight aacbout the diatom bubble issue, I'd be happy to hear it.
ReefWaters
Premium Member
I would bet the diatom is just part of the cycling process. No matter what you did to hurry the cycling process, you will still get some swings. I get diatoms every few weeks when I make changes to the tank or my husbandry and then it goes away within a few days. If there is not a lot, I would not worry about it.
Bubbles? How long have you had the tank fully running with water? It could just be small bubbles still in the plumbing that is working itself out and getting chopped up by the pumps. I really cant say without seeing the situation in person. I would give it a few more days to settle down before doing anything drastic. Unless you find the problem, like a leak before your pump....
I have one question for you. Those racks look like they come very close to the front pane of acrylic. Are you going to put rock in front of the racks so you don't see the PVC? If so, will the rock end up touching the acrylic or be so close that you wont be able to clean the front viewing pane? I personally like to have a good bit of room in between the rock work/coral and the front glass/acrylic.
Good luck! Its looking great! I think your definitely on the right track and doing things right the first time around.
Bubbles? How long have you had the tank fully running with water? It could just be small bubbles still in the plumbing that is working itself out and getting chopped up by the pumps. I really cant say without seeing the situation in person. I would give it a few more days to settle down before doing anything drastic. Unless you find the problem, like a leak before your pump....
I have one question for you. Those racks look like they come very close to the front pane of acrylic. Are you going to put rock in front of the racks so you don't see the PVC? If so, will the rock end up touching the acrylic or be so close that you wont be able to clean the front viewing pane? I personally like to have a good bit of room in between the rock work/coral and the front glass/acrylic.
Good luck! Its looking great! I think your definitely on the right track and doing things right the first time around.
The bubbles are definitely coming from the oxidisation of the fine sand/detritus layer and from the rock and only starts when the lights come on.
I didn't intend for the racks to come so close to the front but ended up that way due to the final mod on the racks. I couldn't fit them in when the strainers were in there so had to put an elbow on the rack which brought them forward %" or so. I can still cover them up and have enough room to clean the front acrylic. That tank is 3' deep so the last photo is a bit misleading.
I didn't intend for the racks to come so close to the front but ended up that way due to the final mod on the racks. I couldn't fit them in when the strainers were in there so had to put an elbow on the rack which brought them forward %" or so. I can still cover them up and have enough room to clean the front acrylic. That tank is 3' deep so the last photo is a bit misleading.
mcdonaldtj
New member
Tank looks huge . Looks great, In my experience bubbles on the sand and rocks is a start of a Cyano bacteria bloom. I actually take a hose and blow into the sand what that does is release the bubbles and ensures that the Cyano doesnt start. The only problem with that is you will have a sand storm for a couple of hours afterwards. I put a Microm flter sock on my drain for a while after I do it to help with the sandstorm and then take it back out later. Hope this helps.
V/Tim
. Looks great, In my experience bubbles on the sand and rocks is a start of a Cyano bacteria bloom. I actually take a hose and blow into the sand what that does is release the bubbles and ensures that the Cyano doesnt start. The only problem with that is you will have a sand storm for a couple of hours afterwards. I put a Microm flter sock on my drain for a while after I do it to help with the sandstorm and then take it back out later. Hope this helps.V/Tim
rdmpe
New member
Great full tank shot - going to be a really nice tank once you are done setting it up!
Is there any reason to run your lights for a long photoperiod at this point? Maybe if you cut back on the lights some while the cycle is happening it will help cut down on the algae. Do you have any snails in there or macro in a sump/fuge?
Is there any reason to run your lights for a long photoperiod at this point? Maybe if you cut back on the lights some while the cycle is happening it will help cut down on the algae. Do you have any snails in there or macro in a sump/fuge?
Only have one halide going for 8 hours - maybe I'll cut it down to 5 or something. I have no cleanup crew in there yet which I'm sure is exacerbating the problem. Here what you say about the cyano though. Think I'll get in there with a powerhead and shake things up.
duhfactor
Premium Member
Nice set-up!!! I've been tagging along the whole time. One of the things I learned from "garf" was to let my tank run for at least one month with live rock without any light at all. I followed that advice in setting up my kids 29 gal tank, and it worked great! No Diatom bloom. It also never showed signs of ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc. Supposedly, (they say) the best ammonia cycle reducing bacteria are photosensitive, and proliferate best under no or low light conditions initially, then light gradually increased over time. (probably already have checked, but if not I think it's somewhere on thier website) Just a thought, but diatoms love light...and you've got a fair bit of that!! Tough to do, but if you don't have coral yet that need it, you could stop the lights for a while as you save for more of that rock!..
Damon
Damon
Things are moving along slowly but surely. All the fish were moved to the big tank leaving my 50g free as a QT tank. In the last week I've acquired some beautiful fish and they are all very young which I'm happy about:
Powder Blue Tang
Flame Angel
Emperor Angel (juv)
Copperband Butterfly
SixLine Wrasse
Longnose Hawk
All appear to be doing great in QT and most are eating from what I can see. I have an assortment of 2" elbows and pipe in there and the fish seem to be getting on just great.
It's my intention to pair up as many fish as possible. My plans are for a harem of Royal Grammas, a pair of mated Banggai Cardinals which RC member MDP is donating to me and a pair of Mandarins. Plus I hope to find mates for the Flame Angel and the Yellow Tang. My other fish plans are a Regal Angel and a Clown Tang and that's about it (around 25 fish). I like fish.
Moved my grape Caulerpa to the fuge and hooked up two light hoods that I found locally. As they run on 100v I had to buy a small transformer to convert the 120v back down to 100v. The lights fit inside the black light box perfectly and sit on the sump flange. I'll take some pics cos it's pretty cool to see that one section lit up and the sections on either side totally dark.
I have a long baffle from the skimmer section to the fuge and as the water exits over the top baffle into the fuge it creates a small vortex so the Grape Caulerpa just tumbles over and over - no more cyano and no need for powerheads - great!
Hooked up the PF0 mini-pendant containing a 10k 175w XM light on the prop section so I'm ready to go when I can afford to get some large colonies to frag.
At the moment my main light canopy is simply suspended from the ceiling which is a major PITA when trying to clean the tank. I went up the hardware store and came up with a cheap way of making a sliding light rack. Will suspend some bars from the ceiling (2 bars each side) and use double-pulley wheels to slide across them with the light canopy suspended underneath on chains. Going to put it up on Monday and will take some pics of that too.
Powder Blue Tang
Flame Angel
Emperor Angel (juv)
Copperband Butterfly
SixLine Wrasse
Longnose Hawk
All appear to be doing great in QT and most are eating from what I can see. I have an assortment of 2" elbows and pipe in there and the fish seem to be getting on just great.
It's my intention to pair up as many fish as possible. My plans are for a harem of Royal Grammas, a pair of mated Banggai Cardinals which RC member MDP is donating to me and a pair of Mandarins. Plus I hope to find mates for the Flame Angel and the Yellow Tang. My other fish plans are a Regal Angel and a Clown Tang and that's about it (around 25 fish). I like fish.
Moved my grape Caulerpa to the fuge and hooked up two light hoods that I found locally. As they run on 100v I had to buy a small transformer to convert the 120v back down to 100v. The lights fit inside the black light box perfectly and sit on the sump flange. I'll take some pics cos it's pretty cool to see that one section lit up and the sections on either side totally dark.
I have a long baffle from the skimmer section to the fuge and as the water exits over the top baffle into the fuge it creates a small vortex so the Grape Caulerpa just tumbles over and over - no more cyano and no need for powerheads - great!
Hooked up the PF0 mini-pendant containing a 10k 175w XM light on the prop section so I'm ready to go when I can afford to get some large colonies to frag.
At the moment my main light canopy is simply suspended from the ceiling which is a major PITA when trying to clean the tank. I went up the hardware store and came up with a cheap way of making a sliding light rack. Will suspend some bars from the ceiling (2 bars each side) and use double-pulley wheels to slide across them with the light canopy suspended underneath on chains. Going to put it up on Monday and will take some pics of that too.
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